At least 115 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured
when Typhoon Rananim ripped through East China's Zhejiang Province, causing
widespread destruction.
One of the strongest storms in years and the 14th this year, the typhoon
blasted the city of Wenling on the coast of Zhejiang Province, about 135
kilometres south of Shanghai, at 8 pm on Thursday night.
Fifteen people are still missing and 185 people are seriously injured.
Local residents in
Xianju County, East China's Zhejiang Province, pass by a damaged section
on Friday of the No 41 Provincial Highway.
[newsphoto] |
The Ministry of Civil Affairs
said 8.59 million people have been affected and the damage bill is likely to
reach 15.33 billion yuan (US$1.85 billion).
Provincial officials said 42,400 homes were destroyed and 88,000 were
damaged, while 271,370 hectares of farmland were ruined. Ten observation posts
recorded rainfall of more than 200 millimetres.
The local authority evacuated 410,000 people from the path of the typhoon,
many from rural villages.
The typhoon also killed 31,000 heads of livestock.
Rananim is the strongest typhoon in the country since 1997, when Typhoon
Winnie killed 236 people and caused US$2.38-billion damage.
One of the worst-hit areas on Thursday was the city of Taizhou, which was
plunged into darkness when power lines went down. The city needs at least three
days to fully restore power supply, according to the local power provider.
More than 300 people were hospitalized and after four hours were still being
treated by candle and torchlight.
About 50 people were hurt by falling objects, said one local doctor.
Conscious of a risk of disease, the provincial public health bureau has sent
teams of doctors and disinfectants to the area.
If there is a silver lining, it is a slight alleviation of drought and high
temperatures in the province.
In Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province, the temperature dropped by
nearly 10 C on Friday.
About 10,000 factories in the city of Yiwu were able to resume normal
operations as electricity supply recovered on Friday.
Typhoon moves on
Typhoon Rananim did not pound Shanghai after all, instead heading
westwards to the neighbouring Jiangxi Province, where it arrived at about 11 am
on Friday.
Border guards in the city of Taizhou, East
China's Zhejiang Province, fasten the fishing boats after moving 1,000 of
them into safe places to face the threat of the approaching typhoon
Rananim, the 14th typhoon this year.
[newsphoto] |
Shanghai, East China's largest
city, had been pre-warned about winds but the typhoon changed track.
By the time it hit Yushan County in the northeast of Jiangxi Province, the
typhoon had weakened to a tropical storm, drenching the area, said a local
meteorologist.
"The tropical storm is expected to stay in the northern part of the province
for the rest of the day and continue to sweep the southwestern part of Anhui
Province or the eastern part of Hubei Province on Saturday," said Xu Aihua,
forecaster with the Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau.
Meteorologists have asked residents in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui
provinces to be vigilant against possible landslides, falling rocks and flash
floods.
Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration, released an
emergency warning about Typhoon Rananim for the first time on China Central
Television Station on Thursday night.
Rananim means "hello" in the Chuukese language spoken in Micronesia.
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